"That was a rather... Interesting sensation..." muttered Lelith. He glanced over to see her eyes somewhat wide. Behind her, Zedoris appeared to be slightly uneasy on her feet, holding tightly to the back of Lelith's seat.

"It does take a bit of getting used to. I'm made thousands of jumps and sometimes I feel a little iffy after the initial sequence." He pulled up the drive data and locked it to a position on his visor.

"If you do not mind my asking, what is the mechanism you use for FTL travel? I've experienced two different drive types but that was an utterly new sensation." Lelith looking like an excited child, though Zedoris seemed to have gotten her bearings, then just leaned against the bulkhead with a sigh.

"Well," Frank leaned his head back and began thinking, "the drive creates a, I guess you can call it, a gravitational singularity. Once a stable singularity is created, it begins something of a push-pull effect. Pulling the space ahead of it, while pushing space behind it. While the ship itself is technically disconnected from standard space, the relative space is moved as opposed to the ship itself. The biggest downside to the drive is you need an equally large or larger gravitational distortion in order dissipate the field or else it would collapse in on itself as the singularity decayed. The easiest source of that would be a star, so the drive has a bit of a built-in safety only allowing the drive to activate upon targeting a proper gravitational field of a star. There have been some cases where an event horizon of a black hole can be used, however, that's risky in it's own right."

"What utter insanity. How are you primates even still alive?" Zedoris muttered from her spot on the bulkhead.

"My, that seems to be an awfully risky way of doing things," a wide-eyed Lelith said. "We we began first testing drives, such an idea was posited however, it was deemed to dangerous to even test. There was even speculation that such a drive would cause a tear in space that would rapidly destroy everything."

"Some of our people thought the same, even those actively working on the drives. Wouldn't be the first time we'd done something thinking it would end it all." Frank sighed.

"How do you mean?" Lelith inquired.

"Well, when we first tested nuclear fission bombs, it was thought that if might ignite the atmosphere," stated Frank mater-of-factly.

"Ah yes, however our tests in space showed that it would not have than effect." Lelith pointed out.

"Yeah, space tests..." Frank chuckled slightly. "We hadn't even send a human into space until sixteen years after the test."

"So, wait, you are telling me you had a nuclear weapon before before spaceflight and that your first test was done in atmosphere? Even when it was believed it would ignite it?" Lelith stared at Frank in shock. Even Zedoris was looking at him with mouth agape.

"That sounds about right. It was a rather 'enlightening' experience, pardon the pun." Frank smirked.

"I am glad that test was successful then. It might have been an issue if more detonations were attempted." Lelith remarked.

"Well... That was just the first one." Frank said as he began scratching his chin.

"What?!" Zedoris spat, while Lelith had a look of heavy concern on her face.

"We may have detonated two bombs in anger to bring about the end of our second world war. As for testing, I believe there was a little over two thousand above and below ground tests..." Franks sheepishly said.

"You've gotta be kidding me, again, how is your damned primate species still alive on that irradiated wasteland?!" Zedoris threw her arms up while pacing slightly. "How in the five moons your kind became the apex predator of your damned rock..." She took a breath while mumbling something. "You know what, forget it. Just forget it. I think your damned insanity is rubbing off on me!" She continued pacing a bit.

"Sometimes I wonder that myself..." Frank muttered under his breath. He glanced over at Lelith to see her staring out in the black with a blank look on her face. He sighed hearing the pacing and what seemed like some kind of mantra, his translator couldn't quite pick it up.

"So, you said that two bombs were used to bring a stop to a 'second' world war? There multiple?" Lelith inquired.

"I'll be honest with you, humans have a tendency to fight, a lot. Many of us are driven by fighting. Everything from one farmer trespassing on another farmer's land causing a life-long feud, to half the planet fighting the other half. Hell, my ship was technically a warship at one point in time, so it didn't stop when we got off the planet. We only created the Unified Earth Government in the last forty years. Even with that, there's still some pushback on it within some of our colonies and outposts." Frank sighed.

"That seems a bit much," Lelith looked over with a saddened expression.

"But, there are some of us who are peaceful and put that kind of environment behind us. One reasons I'm all the way out here. No fighting when you're the only one. My drive is curiosity, to learn, explore and discover. Hell, that drive allowed me to be out here to find you three. And that curiosity is leading me far beyond to where no human has ever gone, to a place I haven't discovered, to learn what I may have never known. That is my driving force. That is why I'm out here, and that is why I'm going to make sure I get you three where you need to go." Frank looked over with a toothless smile.

"I would like that. Very much so." Lelith has an almost giddy look on her face. It was only then did I notice Zedoris seemed calmed down again. "Well, can you tell me a bit about your world?"

"Well, the way Ozakos referred to it, it's a 'DeathWorld', gravity is far too high, weather is extremely unpredictable with climates from almost too hot or cold for us to reside, random tectonic shifts and volcanism, the whole nine yards. We just call it Earth, some call it Terra, but the majority of us just call it home. " Frank said.

"Whole nine yards?" Lelith questioned.

"Oh, well, that's an expression that pretty much means 'everything as a whole'. You see, in older aircraft of war, the guns on the aircraft were supplied with bullets in a chain, you can say. Bullets are the ammunition for chemically propelled projectile weapons. Well, the chains of bullets were in lengths of nine yards, a yard being a unit of measurement. If the pilot used all the ammunition on a target, it's said they used the 'full nine yards.' The phrase evolved slightly but stuck around." Frank pointed out.

"I see," Lelith spoke.

"Earth itself, well, it's hard to describe we have everything from cities of tens of millions of people with towers of glass and steel reaching for the sky, to small towns of a handful of people with one level buildings. Wide open grasslands and huge forests. Countries so large it seems easier to describe them as a fraction of the surface to those you can walk from one end to the other in a day. Cultures anywhere from a couple hundred years old, to millennia in existence." Frank smiled a bit at the thought.

"Our world is not quite so varied. Our people have been rather unified since the beginning. There have been the occasional fight, here and there over territory, but nothing to large scale with the exceptions of... disagreements as to who is chosen as... heads of state. The only time were we started to build something of a military was when we became part of the Galactic Counsel. Part of the membership is to assist with some aspect of the military arm in the event it needed for combat with those who either are not or can not enter the counsel. There are a few warlike species out there that just aren't able to join for one reason or another. One only enjoys fighting for the sake of fighting, another has attempted the genocide of species on more than on occasion to lay claim to their territory, and one, well, they were invited but prefer not to join." Lelith recollected.

"Our planet," she continued, "never really had a name, we just called it after ourselves, Brirali. Vast jungles, yellow grasslands that go on until the horizon under our purple sky, sprawling cities, and almost never too cold nor warm. The temperature is almost perfect. Our weather used to be rather chaotic, but we developed atmospheric controllers so places that need water can get it when needed, which makes farming that much easier and you know about the weather far in advance. Oh, how much fun I used to have buying drinks at stalls and spending the day as the beach."

"That really does sound like paradise compared to Earth." He laughed slightly. "We have some nice beaches on Earth as well, though with blue skies and green plants, I'd love to show you. Perhaps if humans do manage to join the Counsel, we can visit each other's world and see how they compare."

"Damn primate, keep to your own species." Zedoris muttered from behind him.

"Hey now, I take offense to that. You mean to tell me you're not interested in visiting a new world?" Franks inquired.

"Yeah, I'll get right on it, after I get a radiation proof exo-suit and maybe some artillery support." Zedoris scoffed.

"It's not that bad these...." He was interrupted by the computer.

"Preparing to drop from FTL..." The computer chimed.

"Already?" Frank asked. He closed his eyes. "You two, do yourselves a favor and close your eyes for a moment, it's about to get bright in here."

"What are you taking about? Why should we..." Zedoris said as the ship dropped in front of a Class B star. It's bright white existence filling almost the entire cockpit windows before fading a bit. "GAH! What in the five moons?!"

"Ha ha ha!" Frank belly laughed. "I did try and warn you." He glanced over at Lelith. "You can open your eyes now, Lelith." She opened her eyes and they widened upon seeing the site ahead.

"Oh my..." Lelith uttered, entranced by the coiling surface of the star.

With a smile he throttled up and rotated belly toward the star skipping the fueling this time, his tank still quite full.

"I did say we jump right up to a star, Zedoris, I thought you might have picked up on the reason for closing your eyes." Frank tried to stop from laughing further as he saw her walk back to behind Lelith rubbing her eyes. A short while later, as the ship was making it's way beyond the star in the general direction of the next jump he got up and stretched.

"Eden, begin scanning the system and set an alert for when the drive finishes cooldown."

"Acknowledged, commander."

"Welp, time to eat. Then to get started on seeing what I can do for your ship. Feel free to join me, though I'm not entire sure how my food would fair, though. Ozakos told me you primarily eat plant material?" Franks said while walking towards the rear of the bridge..

"Oh yes, though we do eat some lower order species, it's not a primary food source. I am also quite interested in how your human food is." Lelith got up and began to follow while a grumbling Zedoris walked behind her.

Frank walked over to a cabinet and started picking though after looking though a selection of packages finally pulling a few packages. He tossed them into a microwave as he dug into other cabinet and pulled a large bowl and 4 trays along with utensils. He went into the fridge and pulled a plastic container and went to yet another cabinet for a small cylinder, along with four bottles of water. Upon the ding from the microwave he tossed on a small glove to remove the packages and dumped the contents into the bowl. Lelith and Zedoris we already at the table, and he guessed the 'ding' was a good dinner bell for Ozakos as he was making his way from the room to the table.

"Oh, what's this?" Ozakos asked as he was taking a seat.

"We're going to try some human food!" A chipper Lelith said excitedly.

"Oh really now, this may be enlightening." Ozakos nodded.

"It's nothing overly exciting. Sadly most of it is prepackaged and artificial. Since you said you're herbivores, I considered a primarily plant meal should do the trick." He said as he was passing out the trays and utensils before turning around and grabbing a bowl. "These are what we call noodles. They are made from an Earth plant called wheat, which, to admit, it a primarily consumed plant in it's many forms." He said as he place down the bowl with serving tongs. "I think this should be enough, you did say you don't eat too much."

"That I did." Ozakos stated.

"Lastly, there are these." He grabbed the last two containers and sat at the table. "This container," he help up the larger one. "Contains parmesan cheese. Cheese is a type of dairy product made from the milk of an animal called a cow, though this it artificial, it might be alright. I'm not sure how you are with dairy products, Ozakos and I didn't quite get to that point of the conversation."

"That seems similar to what we have, though it's not from a 'cow' you called it?" Lelith said.

"Perhaps. Like I said, I'm not overly sure. But this," Frank held up a smaller container, "is the real deal. It's something called pepper. There was a time in our history that this was one of the most valuable items on the planet. Even now it's still one of the most traded spices, used in almost every culture. It's made from the fruit of a vine. The fruit is dried then ground into a powder. I'm not sure how well you'd digest it, so it might be best to try a little on the side of your plate. I'm not quite sure how it is in your culture, but generally in ours, there's no really method of serving in general. I'm certain circumstances, some measures are taken, but, here, it's 'self-serve."

Frank reached over to grab the tongs and grabbed some pasta and put it on his plate. He laid the tongs on the top of the bowl and turned it toward the other side, and watched them do something similar. He sprinkled some of the cheese on the pasta before pushing over the container, the added some pepper to it. He slid the containers to the other side. Zedoris seemed to be the adventurous one she added a little of both on the side of her plate. She tasted the cheese, before she then grabbed it again to add to he pasta.

"This, cheese, you call it is pretty good." Zedoris remarked.

"Glad you like it. It's a traditional addition to pasta dishes." Frank returned.

"I can see why." Zedoris said before eyeing the pepper. The other two added just alight amount. Zedoris then tasted the pepper and her eyes slowly went wide. "Primate, what in the five moons did you call this?"

"It's pepper, why." Frank was concerned. "What's wrong with it?"

"Do you not know what this is?! This is Isodi! Your species has Isodi!" She was acting a little, well, more chaotic than she usually does.

"What is Isodi?" Frank was now really worried, was it a poison? Did he just unintentionally poison one of these aliens. He saw the wide eyed looks on both Lelith's and Ozakos' faces.

"And you said this was a commonly traded spice among your kind?" Lelith spoke

"Umm... Yes?" Frank was panicked a bit.

"Isodi is something that only graces the tabled of some of the richest in the Galactic Counsel. That bit on her plate would be flavoring for an entire meal. It's not so much a spice for us, a high specialized ingredient used in cooking. That little container there could almost buy that ship you found us in! And that is not at all a cheap price." Ozakos chimed in.

"Ok, so hide the pepper from the Counsel, got it." Frank gave up.

They slowly ate the meal, basking in the flavor of the pepper. 'I guess it's worth a shit ton of whatever they use. Maybe I can just pay that way for what I can't get from this deal after everything is said and done' Frank thought slyly. He had to admit, the look of pure pleasure on their faces made cooking worth it. After a while of them eating in silence. Everyone seemed to have eaten their fill.

Frank began cleaning up. He saw there was still about a ration's worth left in the bowl. He pulled a lid from the cabinet and seal the container before putting it in the fridge for later. He guessed they really didn't eat that much for their meals after all. Sharing rations wouldn't be too bad if its an extra one per meal. As he was putting the trays and utensils in the cleaner, he figured he still had about a month or these 'good' rations left. He's rather not dig into the emergency rations he had. Those dense, overly processed, utterly disgusting food bars were his last choice, only rating just above his own flesh. He still wanted to find out who designed them, he'd shove a few bars down their throats to see how they liked it.

"That was absolutely delicious." Lelith was the first to speak.

"I'm glad you liked it, though much better when properly prepared with freshly made ingredients." Frank responded.

"I think the food is the only reason that I might be willing to visit your planet, primate." Zedoris said with a satisfied look on her face.

"With or without the artillery support?" Frank chuckled.

"Ha!" Responded Zedoris.

"How do you mean?" Ozakos looked quizzically.

"It's nothing, just something she said earlier. Anyway, now that the meal is over, let's go take a look at your craft and see just how bad it is." Frank said as he finished putting everything away.

"I'll join you. I can help explain our systems a bit." Ozakos said as he rose to his feet.

"Thanks. Will you two be joining us?" Frank asked.

"I am not so mechanically inclined, so I may as well stay out of the way." Lelith somberly said.

"You go ahead, I'd wind up breaking something." Zedoris responded.

"No problem, in that case," Frank reached over to the table controls and typed in a few commands. "You were interested in Earth, so here." He brought up the computer's library files, in roughly translated Brirali. "You can go through this a bit to learn a bit more about humans. Translations aren't prefect, but the software 'should' give you a fair approximation of the data. I'll work on the files more later on. Enjoy!" Frank turned grabbed his gloves from the counter and headed towards the cargo bay slipping them on with Ozakos in tow.

"Huh? You already translated your ships files?" Ozakos asked as they walked.

"Not entirely." Franks tapped the cargo bay door controls. "You know how we adjusted my visor to visibly translate to Common?"

"Yes?" Ozakos still trailing behind.

"I'm using a similar set up to translated my written language into Common. Not so much a direct translation, just an overlay." Frank grabbed a large metal box from near the door before hopping down to the deck.

"Well, that would make it quite a bit easier than implementing a full translation. An intriguing work-around." Ozakos said as he began climbing down the steps.

"That's something we often have a habit of doing. Sometimes major issues are just a series of small problems that need solving. In this case, it was translation. To translate everything means a major rewrite of the code, or, we just need to translate what's on the screen that you can see." Frank shrugged slightly.

"As series of simple problems... Are you a philosopher by chance?" Ozakos chuckled slightly.

"No, just someone who steps out of the box once in a while." He said as he entered the craft interior dimly lit the the cargo bay lighting. Finally seeing inside, it was a four seat craft, and had what appeared to be flat panel controls "You said you still had emergency power?"

"Yes," Ozakos answered climbing in himself. "Over here." He walked over to a large panel near the rear of the craft, and removed it from the wall. There was what looked like a battery box with a line leading from it to a plug on the side of the opening.

"Is the power of this line indicative of the power to the rest of the vessel?" Frank asked as he opened the box removing a device with a couple wired probes.

"Almost, the voltage is similar, but the main system draws far more watts. I'm not sure the exact calculation." Ozakos sighed.

"It's alright, that bit is somewhat easy to figure out." he tested the systems voltage. Once he had the number, he placed the device back in the metal box. "I think I might be able to get this working. Is there a power input shunt somewhere?"

"Yes there is, it's on the outside of the ship. It's mainly used so engineers can maintain power to the subsystems during repair by an umbilical." Ozakos said as he lead Frank outside.

"That's exactly what we need then. We can at least get something going. Enough to check things out at the very least." Frank follow Ozakos to a port on the outside of the craft. "Hmm, looks like an oversized, Anderson connector."

"An Ander-what?" Ozakos asked.

"Anderson connector. It's a fairly old but robust power connection we used to use on earth." Frank looked a bit closer. We didn't cover it, but these symbols, I assume one means positive voltage, and the other negative?"

"Huh? Oh, yes it does. Let me look," He leaned in closer. Then pointed, "This one here is negative and," pointed at the other, " this is positive."

"Piece of cake." Frank walked over toward the front of the bay pulling out and walking over a large box with multiple coils of wire, with another rather large line keeping it tethered to the wall.

"Cake?" Ozakos asked?

"Oh uh, cake is a human food, generally a dessert item. Piece of cake is a saying meaning something will be extremely easy." Frank stated as he started to unwind some of the cables.

"You humans have colorful expressions." Ozakos said.

"Well, mix enough cultures, there's bound to me some interesting turns-of-phrases created." Frank stated as he was clamping the wires onto the port. "I'm about to start shunting power in, I'll start the voltage at rating and bring up the amperage. Let me know when the systems start coming back online." He knelt beside the contraption and began fiddling with the controls.

"Got it." Ozakos went inside the craft. Frank now just adjusted one of the controls. After a moment he heard a slight chirp from inside the craft. "Almost there... A bit more... Got it, right there, we have power!"

Frank stood up and entered the craft. Other than a few small panels lit on the wall, it appeared that most of the activity was shown on the displays at the front. He made his way over and sat in a seat definitely made for a larger species.

"So, what do we have?" Frank began looking over the displays. His visor trying to keep up with the every shifting text on the screens.

"Well, I was right, our FTL drive is a lost cause. Our power generator might be able to be salvaged with a proper repair. Shield emitters are burned out. Sensors seem to be functioning properly, though limited within your cargo bay. Have a good scan close range, but I can not get it much further out. Communications seem to be limited in much the same way. Food processor works though, so there is that." He chuckled a bit. "Medical suite looks good as well." Ozakos read off as he was moving from system to system.

"Hmm... What are the chances we can slave your shuttle's computer with my ship's?" Frank thought. "It can make use of my sensors and antenna arrays, process them, then feed the data back into my computer."

"Do you think that will work?" Ozakos glanced over.

"Well, you never know unless you try." Frank responded